La Dee-vina Comedia

So, just the four problems to fix then? Shouldn't be too hard.

Looking for a job as an analogy writer?

I think I understand the selection strategy. We've been looking in the wrong place. What the Match Committee has done is get all the tall players out of the Casey team so Hogan has room to move. Just to be sure, I see that Max King is in the Casey seconds.

HH, do you mean "did WADA approve this" or "is WADA annoyed by this"? What you wrote could mean either

With Grimes out Frawley can go back into defence and Pedersen goes into the forward line. With the forward line WCE is likely to have we'd likely need him back there anyway.

Appeals to me because of my law enforcement background. I know how hard it is from the side of law enforcement to prove a case and particularly the importance of confirming the evidence trail.

Maybe. But it's also possible that Dank provided different supplements to the Cronulla and Essendon players. That he was involved with both clubs certainly sounds alarm bells, but I could see a scenario where his approach at each club differed significantly. I can also see how his engagement at two (or more) clubs can destabilise the chain of evidence. To my mind its entirely possible that supplements found at one club's rooms were only being stored there before being moved to another location for use elsewhere. This is even more likely if he was invoicing one club for supplements he was using at another.

It would have to be a deep trench

I note with some irony that the goal he kicked against GWS came about after he freed his hand which was being held by a GWS player.

Different set of circumstances though. Apart from anything else, I don't think anyone is accusing ASADA of conducting an ultra vires joint investigation with the NRL.

Have you booked in for surgery yet?

Absolutely support the OP. I don't know how much effort the club puts into the "mental" side of player development but I doubt there is a poster out there who hasn't complained about Jack Watts' apparent lack of desire for the contest. If you want a player to run through brick walls you need them to believe that they can do so. That belief can be found in many ways. Some have an intrinsic belief (I think Nathan Jones would be a great example) and others need to be told they can do it, often over and over. And apart from anything else, Jack Watts and some of the other players probably need help to cope with the criticism they receive from the media and supporters, too.

Stress? What stress? I only find football stressful when a game is close. Apparently Pedersen was best for Casey so I suspect he will come in along with Bail and Terlich (who I wouldn't play if I was selecting the side). I predict the outs will be Grimes (inj), Matt Jones and Riley. Barry doesn't really keep his spot on merit - rather he stays for the sake of personal development. Frawley and Dunn should play in defence. And Watts should play on the wing. I'd also like to see Salem have a run on the ball. Otherwise he might freeze if he remains in the forward pocket all day. And any kicks he get have a better chance of finding a target than any of Matt Jones or Riley.

Up until the last couple of weeks, I thought the back office part was going OK and that the on field would eventually follow. But now all I'm hearing is mixed messages. First, Roos says the problem is the mental scars of tanking. Now we ask for a Priority Pick. Doesn't the "ask" for the Priority Pick in itself once again feed those same mental scars? For what it's worth, if we weren't given a priority pick last year I can't see how we'd be given one this year. (And the AFL should scrap the idea anyway).

I voted to keep and "reprogram" him. Sadly, he's actually one of our best players which says more about the rest of the list than it says about Watts. He needs to be "reprogrammed" in two ways. First, he needs his body built up further, particularly around the hips, so he can keep his feet better and perform better in contested situations. And secondly, he needs time with a sports psychologist, not just to instil desire into the way he goes about his football but also to help him appreciate his skills and not worry so much about what everybody else says about him. It can't be helping him that he keeps reading and hearing about how he hasn't lived up to expectations. And I would play him on the wing. Our biggest failing this year has been the final delivery into the forward 50. He is the most skillful player in the team and more likely to spot up Dawes, Hogan, etc than any other player.

If it's fantasy land, we may as well add Chris Judd...he mentioned once that he might be interested in leaving WCE for Melbourne.

Joeboy: "Frawley - scared off suitors" Maybe it's all part of a grand plan. Given we haven't seen any semblance of a plan for the last, say, 50 years, maybe we can be forgiven for not recognising one.

Query: Is the mandatory period 6 weeks? I thought it was more like 8. As much as I'd love to agree with the OP, I don't see the point. If our club's players do it, then all the other clubs will too, which means we'd get no comparative value from the extra effort. Nevertheless, I'd like to see the players have a couple of weeks proper holiday but then work really hard during the rest of their mandatory break and come back at the end of it in the best shape they have ever been.

The saddest part of all this is that right now - after yesterday's miserable performance - this thread is more interesting than any of the multitudinous threads on the team I love. And I say that knowing full well that most people don't agree with most of my posts in this thread (except, perhaps, this one).

Two things stood out to me yesterday. Our players, with a few exceptions, are grossly undersized, even when compared with the young GWS players. Most of the exceptions have come from other clubs - have a look at the body shapes of Vince, Tyson and Dawes and compare them with Frawley, Grimes and Watts. I've been selective, sure, but there are plenty of others to choose from. Which means our players aren't strong enough to stick tackles and they are clearly not fit enough to run out a game, let alone a whole year. To me, that says coaching (meaning player development) has been a big problem over many, many years. i accept that players have to take some responsibility for presenting themselves in the best condition possible, but the players are not themselves professional trained in sports science like (I hope) the coaches are. The players are entitled to and are expected to rely on the guidance of the coaches and for years they have been let down.

6. N Jones (by a street) 5. Tyson (then another street) 4. Jetta 3. Gawn 2. Michie 1. Dunn Really, only the first four deserve votes. Dunn gets his for his first half in the backline. I'm absolutely convinced he's a defender, not a forward. We looked worse without him in the back half and no better with him up forward (although that's not entirely his fault given the delivery into the forward 50). And McDonald gets plaudits for effort but somehow he managed to expose and exaggerate all his weaknesses in the one game.

Have I missed something? Has their "guilt" been proven? I've seen stacks of evidence which suggests Essendon players MAY have taken banned substances but just because popular opinion is that illegal supplements were used, I'm still waiting for proof. The closest to "proof" that I've seen is when Nick McKenzie from The Age interviewed Stephen Dank who allegedly admitted players were given one substance only to change his story during the interview when told what he'd just admitted to was an illegal substance. Relying on a media story as the source of "proof" is fraught with danger.

Are you saying the Essendon players aren't entitled to defend themselves the best way they can? The right to not self-incriminate seems to me like something the Essendon players are perfectly entitled to pursue. It's potentially their livelihood we're talking about, after all.

Hey. Got to pick you up on this comment: "...a whole bunch of other reporters have won prestigious prizes for their coverage of the supplements saga and he has won zilch." What about when he received sports journalist of the year in 2013? OK, so he had to share it with Mick Warner...and three journos from the Daily telegraph. And, I know, it was an internal News Corp award...but still, he won something!

On the plus side, the statistics which accompany the article show how much of an aberration the results are. The next worst in percentage terms is Carlton at 63.6% (compared with our 44.4%) and every other team is 75% or better. When a figure is such an outlier it suggests to me that the Melbourne results are not "natural" and could be rectified quite simply.